Nelson - The Top of the South

We took our first trip to the South Island to visit the wineries in the Nelson region and hike the Abel Tasman National Park. It was just a short 30 minute flight from Wellington across the Cook Strait.

The search is over. Izzy finally encounters the Giant Kiwi Bird !!!!

Wine tasting with new friends from North Carolina - insect man is in the middle.

As some of you may know, my dad's nickname was Big John (aka Juan Grande) - we found his private label at a small brewery.

Izzy loves the local wildlife - moooooo

Izzy's new mode of transporation to the hospital

(Bert, do you want to race?)

The queen set here - in 1954 and no one else has sat here since!

The queen is really big here, she is on almost all the money. When Charles becomes King will they have to reissue all the money?

Izzy at the center of New Zealand - a 45 minute uphill hike.

Hiking Abel Tasman National Park.

Beautiful setting on a deserted beach at Abel Tasman.

On the deserted beach - too cold for a bathing beauty shot.

Water taxi picking us up on the deserted beach.

Izzy driving the water taxi after a full day of wine tasting.

So what if the water taxi was being pulled by a tractor while Izzy was in command.

Mid-winter celebration complete with Christmas Tree.

Around Wellington April & May 2007

Our first Rugby game. All Blacks 61 - France 10. The All Blacks (dressed in black) below doing the Maori huka before the game to scare the French players - it must have worked this was France's biggest loss in over 100 years..Our 1997 Nissan Station Wagon (with very low mileage).

View from Izzy's office - Wellington Harbor in the distance.

Izzy's office. - he sees all the patients in his office. There is a patient bed in the office.

Coffee is big here. They love to decorate the cappuccino's. There are around 7 Starbucks - but they aren't as popular as the local coffee houses - which are everywhere. We love Pandoro's - it is a bakery with great cappuccino and a wonderful bran muffin.

In Old Saint Paul's Church there are the flags of the US and the US Marines. The Marines are honored here because over 25,000 came through here during WWII and the people of NZ loved them. Izzy's Uncle George was one of these Marines - he was a doctor. We went to a wonderful ceremony at St. Paul's on Memorial Day. The US ambassador and the Prime Minister, Helen Clark were there to open a new exhibition to celebrate the US Marines in Wellington.

Izzy sampling wine in Featherstone.

Izzy hiking on Somes Island in search of the Kiwi bird.

Sunset from our apartment.

Art in the Civic Center - a suspended fern globe. Ferns are symbols of NZ.

Maori's discovering Wellington.

As you probably know, Lord of the Rings was filmed in NZ. We went on a tour around Wellington to visit some of the sites. Our guide was a fairy in the second film. Peter Jackson (the producer) is a god here!

Peter Jackson also filmed King Kong in Wellington - mostly in a studio. This ship was the one that bought King Kong back to NYC.

We are hoping to see these little Blue Penguins to add to our collection of penguin pictures from Antarctica.

These are some of the spooky forests where Lord of the Rings was filmed. There are forests all around Wellington and many organized hiking tracks.

There are temporal rain forests which are around Wellington. The NZ tree ferns are beautiful.

There is an awesome car museum just outside of town.

Izzy's favorite car was this Nazi sedan.

The capital building - called appropriately, the Beehive.

Lake Taupo & Hawkes Bay - June 2007

Beer tasting at a local pub.

On the trip to Napier we also visited Hawkes Bay and toured 7 wineries. They are most famous for their Syrahs. It was much like visiting the fine wineries in Northern California. We particularly enjoyed seeing the sheep in the vineyards. They use them to keep the grass low and the eat the unneeded lower leaves on the vines. There are 20 million sheep and only 4 million people in New Zealand.

We also went to Lake Taupo - the largest lake in New Zealand. It was created by one of the largest volcanoes in history which erupted 2000 years ago. They predict that the next time it erupts all of the North Island of New Zealand will disappear. There is a lot of geothermal activity - much like Yellowstone. It was kind of spooky - I thought a dinasour would step out of the forest at any moment.

We loved the Mc Donald's in the old airplane. The alligator is named IZZY. There was a contest of local school children - Izzy won - it means "is he" going to eat you. He doesn't move much.

Napier - May 30, 2007

Our first mini-vacation was to Napier for four nights starting on May 30, 2007. Napier is on Hawkes Bay on the East Coast of New Zealand. In 1931 it was completely destroyed by an earthquake. In the midst of the great depression, the citizens decided to rebuild Napier and make it the first modern city. They widened the streets, put all the utilities underground, and established a strict building code. In about year over 100 buildings were rebuilt in the art deco style. We took a tour in a red 1934 Buick complete with a guide named Bertie dressed in 1930's clothing.